Death toll in Paris gas blast rises to four after body found

Jan. 13 (UPI) — The death toll in a gas explosion in a bakery and apartment building in central Paris rose to four after rescue workers found a woman’s body in the rubble Sunday.

Also, the Paris prosecutor’s office said that 47 people had been injured by the explosion, 10 of them critically, The New York Times reported.

About 30 firefighters had searched for a woman who had been declared missing. It wasn’t confirmed whether the missing woman was the fourth fatality, BBC reported.

The pavement on around the apartment building housing the Hubert bakery on Rue de Trevise had charred debris and broken glass.

A gas leak had been reported in the building and when firefighters had arrived the explosion occurred shortly later at 9 a.m. Two firefighters and a woman from Spain were killed.

The blast was “manifestly accidental,” Remy Heitz, the Paris prosecutor, told reporters. But he said the investigation was in the early stages.

Helicopters were used to help evacuate some of the injured, picking them on the square in front of the Paris Opera house.

“As I walked down the street, windows were broken and I saw people come towards me who were very distraught, some of them wearing pajamas or underwear,” Matthieu Croissandeau, a French resident, told The New York Times. “It was a real scene of desolation. A car was overturned by the blast, the facade of the building was destroyed, people at the windows were shouting.